Iceland-msg - 1/8/17

History and culture of Iceland.

NOTE: See also the files: Norse-msg, pst-Vik-Norse-msg, Norse-food-art, N-drink-ves-msg, ships-msg, Greenland-msg, Norse-games-art, fd-Norse-msg, names-Norse-msg, fish-skin-tan-msg, stockfish-msg.

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NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

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Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: DDFr at Midway.UChicago.edu (David Friedman)
Subject: Re: The Status of Myrkfaelen, is it really ruled by Aethelmarc?
Organization: University of Chicago Law School
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 1995 14:42:11 GMT

E. F. MORRILL asks Orlando:
> Pretty much though out the span of time that the majority of us play, 
> "everyone" was in Fealty or "owed" something to someone else. Times of 
> Kings and Queens and Knights doing "great deeds". Romance. The "good" things.
> I have never understood Myrkfaelen's stand on this issue. 

Iceland, according to the Icelanders' account, was settled by refugees from
the forcible unification of Norway under King Harald Haarfagr. From the
settlement of Iceland in about 870 until the end of Icelandic independence
in about 1263, Iceland owed allegiance to no king. The internal political
system was not feudal in the ordinary sense; thingmen were associated with
chieftains, but were free to change their tie to any other chieftain that
would have them. With the exception of some Icelanders who chose to become
retainers of foreign kings (usually the king of Norway), virtually nobody
in Iceland was in fealty to anyone.

Your picture of medieval history apparently leaves out one of its most
interesting societies (and, incidentally, one that produced some of the
best literature of the middle ages). That is no reason why other people
should do the same. Popular views of the middle ages (kings and queens and
knights in shining armor) may be a good starting point for people in the
SCA, but surely one of the points of what we are doing is to go deeper into
the real middle ages, not just stay with the hollywood version. The sagas
are, at least in my view, better literature than the chansons de geste, and
their heroes and heroines more interesting people. Myrkfaelinn deserves
credit for trying to model their group on a very real and (as your posting
suggests) too little known part of the middle ages.

> Is MYRK willing to accept than maybe someday there may be a 
> King or Prince who would expouse the ideas I put forth? Someone who would 
> not accept the "status-quo" and, according to their beliefs and 
> convictions, rule? 

Many years ago, Marion of Edwinstowe commented that my one qualification
for the throne was that I already knew that being king and thirty-five
cents would get you a ride on the MTA. If a king tries to follow the policy
you outlined, and if Myrkfaelinn then is the Myrkfaelinn I have known, he
will learn that lesson. Anyone who believes that SCA kings "rule" in any
strong sense of that term is, in my view, not qualified for the job.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
DDFr at Midway.UChicago.Edu


From: harpa at ismennt.is (Harpa Hreinsdottir)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Web-pages about Egil's saga
Date: 3 Apr 1996 16:44:03 -0000
Organization: Islenska menntanetid

You can now read about the viking and poet Egill Skalla-Grimsson in
English.  Students at a comprehensive school in Iceland have made some
web-pages about Egil's saga and translated them into English.  They can
be seen at:

http://rvik.ismennt.is/~harpa/forn/english/e_egils/e_egils.html

or just go to http://rvik.ismennt.is/~harpa/forn
and choose the English version.

						Yours
						Harpa Hreinsdottir
						harpa at ismennt.is


From: DDFr at Best.com (David Friedman)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Help with Icelandic personna
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 00:48:50 -0800
Organization: School of Law, Santa Clara University

In article <546l9d$p7 at binky.axionet.com>, Lithium <lithium at axionet.com> wrote:

>  I have recently joined the sca and would like to try to make my personna
> Icelandic do to my ethnic background. I unfortuatly have no living 
> Icelandic relatives left and am finding anything about medieval iceland
> particularly hard to find. If you have any ideas where i would find some 
> info I would be very grateful.

Congratulations, you have the world's most fun to research persona. The
Icelandic sagas give a very realistic picture of the society, they are good
reading, they were written in period, and a fair number of them are
currently in print in English translations, often in paperback. Good
examples are Egil Saga, Njal Saga, Laxdaela Saga, Gisli Saga, ...  .

A good modern historian of saga period Iceland is Jesse Byock, who has
published several books.

If you are curious about the legal system, take a look at my article on
"Private Production and Enforcement of Law," reachable from my academic web
page at:

http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Academic/Academic.html

David/Cariadoc


From: gunnora at bga.com (Gunnora Hallakarva)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Help with Icelandic personna
Date: 19 Oct 1996 20:27:35 GMT

In article <546l9d$p7 at binky.axionet.com>, lithium at axionet.com says...

> I have recently joined the sca and would like to try to make my personna
>Icelandic do to my ethnic background. I unfortuatly have no living 
>Icelandic relatives left and am finding anything about medieval iceland
>particularly hard to find. If you have any ideas where i would find some 
>info I would be very grateful.
>
>Colleen Gordondottir. 

Try the following:

Byock, Jesse. Feud in the Icelandic Saga.  Berkeley: U of California Press.  1982.

Byock, Jesse.  Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas and Power.  Berkeley: U of California Press.  1988.

Dennis, Andrew, Peter Foote and Richard Perkins, trans.  Laws of Early Iceland: 
Gragas.  Vol I.  Winnipeg: U of Manitoba Press.  1980.

Frank, Roberta.  "Marriage in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Iceland." Viator 4 (1973): 473-484.

Fry, Donald K. Norse Sagas Translated into English: A Bibliography.  New York:  AMS Press. 1980.

Gelsinger, Bruce.  Icelandic Enterprise: Commerce and Economy in the Middle Ages.  Columbia: U of S. Carolina Press.  1981.

Hastrup, Kirsten.  Culture and History in Medieval iceland: An Anthropological Analysis of Structure and Change.  Oxford: Clarendon.  1985.

Jacobsen, Grethe.  "The Position of Women in Scandinavia During the Viking Period."  MA Thesis.  U of Wisconsin.  1978.

Jochens, Jenny M.  "The Church and Sexuality in Medieval Iceland."  Journal of Medieval History 6 (1980): 377-392.

Jochens, Jenny M.  "The Medieval Icelandic Heroine: Fact or Fiction?"  Viator 17 (1986): 35-50.

These books and articles are a start.  There are tons of books on the topic, many of which are unfortunately not in English.  Post e-mail direct to me if you need more guidance in your literature search.
-- 
Gunnora Hallakarva
Herskerinde


From: DDFr at Best.com (David Friedman)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Help with Icelandic personna
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 1996 23:46:54 -0800
Organization: School of Law, Santa Clara University

gunnora at bga.com (Gunnora Hallakarva) wrote:
> Gelsinger, Bruce.  Icelandic Enterprise: Commerce and Economy in the
> Middle Ages. Columbia: U of S. Carolina Press.  1981.

The economic analysis in the book is dreadful. See my review in _History of
Political Economy_ when the book came out.

David/Cariadoc


Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: bq676 at torfree.net (Kristine E. Maitland)
Subject: Re: Help with Icelandic personna
Organization: Toronto Free-Net
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 1996 17:23:40 GMT

Gunnora Hallakarva (gunnora at bga.com) wrote:
: lithium at axionet.com says...
: > I have recently joined the sca and would like to try to make my personna
: >Icelandic do to my ethnic background. I unfortuatly have no living 
: >Icelandic relatives left and am finding anything about medieval iceland
: >particularly hard to find. If you have any ideas where i would find some 
: >info I would be very grateful.
: >
: >Colleen Gordondottir. 
:
: Try the following:
(excellent booklist deleted)

Or you can get the handbook for Eoforwic's icelandic assembly (the Canton 
of Eoforwic held an Icelandic event a couple of years ago).  Mistress 
Nicolaa!  Are there any spare copies still roaming around in Ealdormere?
If not, drop me a line, Colleen and we'll see about you getting MY copy.

la rosa nera
Ines
Ealdormere
bq676 at torfree.net


Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1999 01:22:25 -0000
From: <nannar at isholf.is>
Subject: Re: SC - food and hospitality

Christine A Seelye-King <mermayde at juno.com> said:
>> Not much bread and porridge, as most grain had to be imported (the
>>only grain grown with any success in Iceland is barley, and that was
>>mostly used for ale).
>
>This is contrary to what I have read.  The reasoning being that much more
>value could be had from cooked barley than from ale.  (It would certainly
>go farther.)  Hmm.

Yes, but this is the Vikings, remember? They probably considered greater
value to be had from ale ... the alternative was to import the ale (which
was also done) and go without it six months of the year (ships only sailed
to Iceland in the summer months; that is why guest were sometimes invited to
spend the whole winter). Anyway, every source I´ve consulted says barley was
cultivated to make ale and bread. In that order.

>>The old Norse poem Hávamál, which I was made to learn by heart at a
>>very tender age, largely deals with the theme of hospitality - what
>>hospitality to offer a guest, and how to accept it.
>
>OOh!  Would you be able to re-create it (in English) for us here?  I
>would love to have it!  Many thanks in advance,
>Mistress Christianna MacGrain

A translation by W.H.Auden is to be found at this site (it pretty much gets
the meaning of the original but lacks its haunting beauty):

http://www.itn.is/~mar/havamal.htm

"The herd knows its homing time,
And leaves the grazing ground:
But the glutton never knows how much
His belly is able to hold."
(from Hávamál)

Nanna


Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 19:19:14 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - food and hospitality

At 6:44 PM -0500 1/11/99, Christine A Seelye-King wrote:

>>>Elaina

>>The old Norse poem H·vam·l, which I was made to learn by heart at a
>>very tender age, largely deals with the theme of hospitality - what
>>hospitality to offer a guest, and how to accept it.
>
>OOh!  Would you be able to re-create it (in English) for us here?  I
>would love to have it!  

Havamal is part of the Elder Edda, readily available in English translation.

"Shun not the mead but drink in measure;
Speak to the point or be still."

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 00:30:01 -0000
From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at isholf.is>
Subject: Re: SC -  "bog butter"

>I thought I was the only one questioning the hair in the butter.  I have had
>dairy goat herds in the past and have never had a problem with hair in the
>milk. Just wash the udders properly and strain the milk before you make butter
>or cheese. Your milk is free of any imperfections. I can't imagine anyone not
>being clever enough to figure this out for themselves.

I´ve no idea how clever the old Icelanders were. What I know is they had to
keep - and milk - their cows in cramped, windowless, dark, stuffy hovels
made of stone and sod, lit only by by meagre and flickering tallow or fish
liver oil lanterns. And the shaggy, long-haired ewes were milked out in the
fields in all kinds of weather, often far from any source of water (I can
personally attest to the fact that you can´t handle Icelandic sheep, in
early summer at least, when they are shedding their old coat of wool,
without wool hairs clinging to everything, in particular to your hands). I
believe most people strained their milk through horsehair sieves, but they
seem not to have caught everything. And some were too poor to afford even
such a basic utensil. But given the general low standards of cleanliness and
hygiene of my countrymen at the time (commented upon by European visitors
from the 16th century onwards), I´d say a few hairs in the butter would have
been the least of their worries.

Nanna


Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 18:32:34 -0000
From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at isholf.is>
Subject: Re: SC - exposure of children

Phlip wrote:
>"Exposure of children" is a polite phrase describing taking an unwanted
>child (female, too many other kids, deformed, bastard, politically
>undesirable bloodlines, whatever) and leaving it out in the woods to die
>without shedding its blood, shedding the blood of a relative being an
>undesirable thing in most cultures.

In Iceland at least, the most common reason seems to have been fear of
overpopulation - the babies that were left to die mostly belonged to the
poor, or to slaves. The father, or the master, had absolute control over the
fate of his child, but according to Christian beliefs, the child itself had
a right to life. But the Icelandic Christians seem to have been swayed by
economic arguments - both regarding exposure and the eating of horsemeat.
This is from The Saga of Ólafur Tryggvason (sorry, can´t find the English
translation just now so I´ll just translate loosely myself):

"Those men who have been the greatest opponents of Christianisation will
hardly find it easy to understand how it can be combined to feed every child
that is born, both to poor men and rich, but at the same time forbid and
deny as food something that used to be very important for the common people"
(i.e. horsemeat).

>There is always the "possibility" of rescue, which salves some folks'
>fragile consciences. The theme of abandoned children being rescued is a very
>important one across many of our cultures- look at Moses and Romulus and
>Remus, for example.

Yes, there are a few examples of this in the Icelandic sagas also. Usually,
however, these wretched souls turned into fearsome ghosts and sought revenge
on their parents, or on innocent travellers that happened to pass the place
where the children had been abandoned.

Nanna


Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 09:01:58 -0000
From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at isholf.is>
Subject: Re: SC - Horsemeat, was Re: "cruel food"-

Ras asks:
><< we are celebrating 1000 years of Christianity next year anyway >>
>
>Why?

You mean, why celebrate at all, or why celebrate next year when scholars
know we probably got the date wrong? The second one is easy - 1000 is a nice
round number, and generations of Icelanders have believed it to be the
correct year.

If you are asking - why celebrate at all - leaving religious issues aside,
well, the Christianisation of Iceland is one of the major events in our
history, it laid the ground for structural changes in our society, and
besides it happened in a pretty unique manner. Is there another instance
when a whole nation decides, without the use of force and without much
prelude, to abandon its traditional belief and accept a new faith?

The decision to convert was, according to what Ari fró›i ?orgilsson wrote in
the Book of the Icelanders, made by ?orgeir (Thorgeir) Ljósvetningago›i, a
pagan chieftain who also held the position of Law Speaker – the only public
office in the Icelandic Commonwealth. He lay down under his pelt and uttered
no word for two days. At the end of this period, he called together the
Althing (this happened at ?ingvellir, when the Althing was in session) and
stipulated that Icelanders should be baptised in the Christian faith, to
avoid conflict and strife. (They were, however, allowed to worship pagan
gods secretly and practice ancient customs, such as the exposure of children
and the eating of horse meat.)

So, what I personally will be celebrating next year is not the anniversary
of Christianisation, but the fact that we Icelanders have always chosen the
peaceful solution. (Well, mostly.)

Nanna


From the Norse Folk List -
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2000 15:58:10 -0000
From: nanna at idunn.is (Nanna Rognvaldardottir)
Subject: Re: Names with Norse Origin

> Also, if you have a friend going to Iceland, have 'em procure a phone
>book. ;>

Or you could check the Icelandic online phone book at:
http://www.simaskra.is/

(search by first name, middle name or last name - if you type a fairly
common last name such as Helgason or Bjarnad—ttir into the Kenninafn field
and leave the others blank, you should get a long list of first names to
study - then you can ask me if they are Saga period or more recent)

or the National register at:
http://www.bi.is/toflur/thjodskra/nafnaskra2.asp

(chose Nafn einstaklings and search by first name, or first and last
name)

>While not everything in the Icelandic phone book is a Viking Age
>name, I"d be willing to bet that 75% or so of them are.

More or less, yes. While my own name is an çsatrœ godess name that probably
wasn't used as a given name until the 18th century, my children, my parents,
my siblings, my nephews and nieces all bear names from the Saga period,
little changed except that names now ending in -ur used to end in -r. Male
names in the family are Ršgnvaldur, Hjalti, Eir’kur, Ing—lfur, Þ—rir, Oddur,
Bergur, Bjarni - the females are Sigr’Ýur, ValgerÝur, GuÝrœn, Helga,
Svava, çsd’s.

Nanna Ršgnvaldard—ttir


Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 13:31:02 -0000
From: nanna at idunn.is (Nanna Rognvaldardottir)
Subject: Re: SC - honeymoon sites

Ras wrote:
> You do realize, Nanna, that you are making it extremely difficult for Elysant
> and I to decide between France and Iceland for a honey moon? :-0

Oh, I do, I do - but unless you are planning a very short engagement, the
testicle season will be long over. [see organ-meats-msg - Stefan]

But if you travel with Icelandair to France, you can have a 3-day stopover
at no extra cost ...

>Go to Iceland ... in the winter ...
>I just read an account of someone who just came back
>from Iceland and they raved about the hospitality, the
>hot spas, the cuisine and the wonderfully romantic
>idea of sharing body warmth ... need I say more?
>
>Huette

All of that would apply for a summer visit also, not least the need for
sharing body warmth - anything above 17 degrees C (62 deg F) for three days
in a row is considered a major heatwawe around here. And then there is the
midnight sun. And a certain museum I'm not mentioning.

Nanna


From: Bob Hurley <bhurley at charter.net>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Iceland
Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2000 23:09:57 -0400

ASLAAN2 wrote:
> If you know of any, could you please point me to resourses for developing a
> female Icelandic persona of any time in period?  My thanks in advance.
>
> Lady Stefana

This is a good starting place:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook2.html#lit2

which is an online source for the sagas, many of which were about Icelanders.

Thorgrim inn islendingr


From: dirkviking at aol.com (DirkViking)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Iceland
Date: 09 Apr 2000 21:23:50 GMT

You might try 
_Women in Old Norse Society_
by Jenny Jochens 
ISBN 0-8014-8520-7

She leans pretty heavily on Iceland.


Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 04:24:09 -0000
From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at isholf.is>
Subject: Re: SC - Clean Vikings -- OT

>Iceland has bath-houses
>using volcanic hot springs that have been in continuous use
>since the Settlement. Now where is this documented? *sigh*

Huh? Is the lady saying that we have bath-houses that have been in
continuous use since the Settlement? If so, I'd dearly love directions to
find one of them. If she means that the hot springs have been used for
bathing since the Settlement, well, some of them were used then, and are
used now, but I'm not too sure about the continuous use. For washing and
sometimes cooking, yes. For bathing - well ...

She also says, in the article referred to:
>In Iceland where natural hot springs are common, the naturally heated
>water was incorporated into the bath-house.

This could easily be understood as if most farms had a bath-house heated
with water from hot springs. I'm not saying there weren't any but offhand, I
can't recall any such bath-house mentioned in the Sagas. Sure, a house was
probably built around Snorralaug in Reykholt and a few other hot springs but
that was not the norm. There was a bath-house (or bathroom, probably a sauna
of sorts) at most farms but it was usually heated by firewood. Later, when
wood became scarce, the bathroom was the only heated room in the farmhouse
and people began sleeping there. Later still, almost all fuel (mostly peat
and dung, at that point) had to be used for cooking and people stopped
bathing, more or less - but the "bathroom" kept its name (ba?stofa). For
centuries, the main sleeping/living/dining/working room of the Icelandic
farm went by the name of bathroom. My mother was born in a "ba?stofa" in
1928.

Yes, the old Icelanders probably bathed a lot, as did the Vikings (saturday
is still called "laugardagur" (bath day) in Icelandic). And they probably
used natural hot springs when available. But relatively few Icelandic farms
have a hot spring of suitable temperature close by the farmhouse, so these
naturally heated bath-houses couldn't have been that common, really.

Nanna


Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 02:40:43 EST
From: Gerekr at aol.com
Subject: SC - Norse news - Gragas II at last

Please pass this info to anyone you know who has a SERIOUS interest in 
things Norse -- volume II of the Laws of Early Iceland (Gragas), from the 
 University of Manitoba Press, is now available!!  We've been waiting 
(impatiently!) since 1985 or so, #1 was published in 1980.

The nice man at the press wrote -- "we've finally updated our website, so 
if you know of anyone/groups who might be interested, they can check 
under New Books at 
      http://www.umanitoba.ca/uofmpress "

Gerek who got it for Christmas, and Chimene who managed a surprise for a 
change, 8-)!!


Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 09:39:09 -0000
From: "Nanna Rognvaldardottir" <nanna at idunn.is>
Subject: SC - Travels in Iceland?]

'Lainie wrote:
>> A friend is going to Iceland, does anybody have suggestions of cool
>> things to see or do there?

Depends on a lot of things. Is the friend coming here now, or next month, or
later? How many days is he planning to stay? Does he want to travel a lot,
or stay mostly in ReykjavÌk? Does he want information on the ReykjavÌk
nightlife, which I understand is pretty cool? (couldn't help there myself
but I've got a resident expert on that). Or does he just want to know about
museums and such?

>> I found the Icelandic Tourist board, and a site on Icelandic archeology
>> (http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/voyage/subset/iceland/archeo.html) but other
>> than that, information seems rather scarce.
>>
>> Suggestions?

Unfortunately, the National Museum (www.natmus.is/English/index.htm) is
still mostly closed for renovation (should have reopened last year but
didn't). Then of course there is our one real national treasure, the old
manuscripts at the ¡rni Magn˙sson Institute (try www.am.hi.is) - I think
there is an exhibition just now of manuscripts and documents connected to
the discovery of Greenland and Vinland (America).

fiingvellir, site of the old parliament for 868 years (until 1798) and a sort
of national shrine - no old buildings or anything like that but a beautiful
place and the center of Icelandic history.

Then there are the usual tourist places like Gullfoss (waterfall) and Geysir
(famous hot spring which was more or less dormant for most of the 20th
century but has been very active since the earthquakes last summer) - and if
the friend is an outdoor type, there is no end to the possibilities.

The weather is - unpredictable. At all times. There have been times this
winter when Iceland was the warmest spot north of the Alps (here in
ReykjavÌk, we are currently experiencing the first snow of the winter); in
the North (my birthplace), snow in July is not unheard of.

If there is anything specific this person wants to know, he is welcome to
email me at nannar at isholf.is.

Nanna


Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 09:16:03 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Travels in Iceland?]

>Then of course there is our one real national treasure, the old
>manuscripts at the ¡rni Magn˙sson Institute (try www.am.hi.is)

The manuscripts are great, but your national treasure isn't the 
manuscripts, it's what was written in them.

Men die, Horses die,
(and parchment eventually dies too, although it takes longer)

I hope they get the museum opened again. My favorite thing in it, on 
a long ago visit, was a case full of hacksilver. Museums, for some 
reason, are unwilling to let you take their jewellery apart to see 
how it is made, so it is nice when someone else has done it for you.
- -- 
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/


From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at isholf.is>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Summer starts WHEN?
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2001 06:08:05 -0000

Here in Iceland, Summer starts on the first Thursday after April 18th, and
has done so for at least 1000 years. But then, the old Icelandic calendar
has only two seasons. The first day of summer is an official holiday, with
parades and outdoor celebrations which usually have to be moved inside
because of snow or bad weather.

Nanna


From: "Nanna Rognvaldardottir" <nanna at idunn.is>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Summer starts WHEN?
Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2001 09:32:32 -0000

Stefan asked:
> Did these celebrations used to be done outdoors? If so, does this change
> to doing them indoors mean:
> a) The climate has changed
> or
> b) There are now larger buildings such that large group activities can
> now be held inside instead of outside
> or
> c) Modern Icelanders have become more comfort conscious?
> or
> d) Even if this date has always started Summer, it wasn't celebrated
> the way it is now?

All of the above are true but the correct answer is d).

Icelanders used to be much wiser than this, they celebrated indoors, by
serving feasts, playing games and giving gifts - the custom of giving a
sumargjaf predates Christmas gifts in Iceland by several centuries. This was
done in the home; larger celebrations began in the late 19th century and the
parades and such in the 1920s.

This day is also the first day of the month of Harpa and since Harpa was
personified as a young girl, she was especially celebrated by young men -
how, I'm not quite sure. It is said to be a good omen if winter and summer
"freeze together" - that is, if the temperature drops below freezing in the
night before the first day of summer. Also, when you see the first summer
moon, you should keep silent until someone speaks to you.  Whatever he says
(or "answers into the summer moon") can then be taken as a kind of omen or
prophecy.

Nanna


From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at isholf.is>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Iceland & Scotland - what to get?
Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 01:14:57 -0000

From: Ginny Claphan <mizginny at yahoo.com>
>
>My parents will be traveling to Iceland (Klefavik, Reykjavik) and Scotland
>(Glasgow, Iona, Edinburgh) on vacation for the next 2 weeks. What would be
>interesting food/drink-related items to bring back for me that could fit in
>a suitcase?

That depends. Will they go straight back home from Iceland or are they going
to Iceland first, then Scotland? If they are going straight to the US, then
there is skyr (various types, and no, I'm not suggesting that yogurt with
Pop-Rocks; not one of the Icelandic Dairy Association's brighter ideas, I
think), cheeses (especially mysuostur, brown whey cheese), rye flatbread
(with or without Iceland moss), perhaps a bag of Iceland moss, hverabrau=F0
(dark rye bread baked overnight in hot earth close to a geyser), smoked lamb
(Icelandic livestock is completely free of BSE and foot and mouth, but I'm
still not sure if you can import it to the US), smoked salmon and trout,
various types of dried fish (har=F0fiskur), a bag of s=FApujurtir, "soupherbs"
(various mixed vegetables and herbs) for the traditional Icelandic lamb soup
(recipe can be obtained from me), some dried wild herbs, and several other
things, like reindeer pate and lumpfish caviar.

If they are going to Scotland before going back, it gets more complicated.
The herbs are OK, of course. The dried fish will keep but frankly, I
wouldn't want to keep dried fish - even well wrapped - with my clothes for a
week.
Ask them to bring at least a mini-bottle of Black Death. (Some rotten shark
would go well with it but I doubt the US Customs would like it.) So I'm not
really sure what to suggest. A horn spoon carved with a traditional pattern,
perhaps. A traditional wooden lidded bowl (askur) is rather too expensive.
An Icelandic crepe pan, which is really the best pan for making very thin
crepes. If you want cookbooks, there are a couple of small recipe booklets
available (although I would, quite frankly, recommend waiting for my own
book, which is scheduled for November. It does have American measurements,
at least.)

That is all I can think of now. I can also point you at the best places to
buy these things - do you know at what hotel your parents will be staying?

Nanna


Subject: [Ansteorra] Another Web Resource for icelandic Mss and Documents
Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 09:35:54 -0600
From: "Christie Ward" <val_org at hotmail.com>
To: <ansteorra at ansteorra.org>

I thiought I'd forward along this tidbit that came to the Norsefolk list
(and before that from the Atlantean list).  I think it will be a useful
resource not only for those interested in Norse literature, but also the
calligraphers and illuminators out there.

::GUNNORA::

-----
Saganet
http://saga.library.cornell.edu/

The National and University Library of Iceland has partnered with Cornell
University to bring Saganet to the Web. This impressive digitization project
will feature 380,000 manuscript pages and  145,000 printed pages of Old
Icelandic literature and critical works  published before 1900.

The site offers "the full range of Icelandic family sagas" as well as
Germanic/Nordic mythology, the history of Norwegian kings, and tales  of
European chivalry. Users can search or browse the collection, and  there is
a large amount of help documentation for those who need more  assistance
getting used to the interface.

It is perhaps needless to say that the site is available in both  English
and Icelandic, though the texts and cataloging records are  only in
Icelandic. We had difficulties using the site with Netscape  on a Mac
platform but no problems with Internet Explorer.


Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:20:24 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Salt in Iceland (was Honey butter)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

<<< If I recall correctly Iceland is a volcanic island on the north 
Atlantic mid oceanic rift. >>>

As I like to put it, the majority of Iceland is in Europe, the 
majority of Icelanders are Americans. Geologically speaking.
-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com


Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:52:25 EDT
From: euriol at ptd.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Salt in Iceland (was Honey butter)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

I had a chance this past weekend to glance at a research paper on Icelandic Skyr & Mysa (curds & whey) and I think this was mentioned in the paper (I've asked the author for a copy that I might be able to read it cover to cover).

If I'm remember right from the paper, it was the scarcity of wood that made the harvesting of the salt impractical in Iceland.

Euriol

--- Original Message ---
Was written:
<<< I _think_ the places where salt tends to be harvested from salt water  are 
places where there are shallow bays and a lot of sunshine; places  like 
Southern Spain and India. I also believe Northern Europe tends to  see 
more mined salt, and I'm not sure Iceland is one of the centers  for that. >>>

If I recall correctly Iceland is a volcanic island on the north Atlantic mid 
oceanic rift.  Mined salt comes from sedimentary deposits.

Daniel
mka Daniel C. Phelps, P.G. (Professional Geologist) 


Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:49:54 -0500 (CDT)
From: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Subject: [SCA-AS] [Fwd: TMR 08.03.05 Gronlie,	Islendingabok-Kristni
	Saga (Davis)]
To: "Arts and Sciences in the SCA"
	<artssciences at lists.gallowglass.org>,	ekas at localhost

This may be of interest to those in the Viking area:
---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: TMR 08.03.05 Gronlie, Islendingabok-Kristni Saga (Davis)
From:    "The Medieval Review" <tmrl at indiana.edu>
Date:    Fri, March 7, 2008 4:06 pm
To:      tmr-l at indiana.edu
        bmr-l at brynmawr.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gronlie, Sian, trans. "Islendingabok--Kristni Saga "The Book of
Icelanders"--"The Story of Conversion"". London: Viking Society for
Northern Research, University College London, 2006. Pp. xlix, 97.
ISBN-13: 978-0-903521-71-0 (pb).

   Reviewed by Craig R. Davis
        Smith College, Northampton, MA
        cradavis at email.smith.edu

"Islendingabok," "The Book of Icelanders," was written between
the years 1122-33 by Ari Thorgilsson (ca. 1068-1148). It is the first
extant text in vernacular Old Icelandic and contains the earliest
account of the settlement of Iceland by Norse people after the year
870 and their foundation ca. 930 of an island-wide government based
upon assemblies of chieftains and their followers, rather than the
rule of kings. It also offers the first Icelandic witness to the
further settlement of Greenland and discovery of the New World in the
late tenth century. Ari's focus, however, is the formal conversion of
his fellow-countrymen to Christianity in 999 or 1000 at the annual
"Althingi," "National Assembly," and their subsequent
Christianization under native bishops. His account is "quite unique"
(xvi) in medieval historiography for the clarity with which he
specifies the direct personal communications he received from several
long-lived informants, who remembered their baptism as children or
were born soon after the turn of the millennium. His models were
possibly Bede's "Eccesiastical History of the Nation of Angles"
or Adam of Bremen's "History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-
Bremen", but unlike those authors, Ari concentrates rather narrowly
upon the secular and political aspects of the change of faith, with
minimal reference to affairs of the Church abroad or even its interest
in earlier missions to Iceland. Gronlie argues that Ari's book about
"the Icelanders" (the first use of that collective designation)
suggests that his work should be interpreted not as a national or
ecclesiastical history per se, although it contains elements of both
genres. Rather, "Islendingabok" represents a distinctively new
kind of "constitutional history," where the author follows closely the
development of a legal system in which challenges and changes to its
operation form the author's "main structuring device" (xxviii).

Even though Ari is proud to trace the lineage of leading families back
to their distinguished origins in Norway and favors the victory of the
Christian party, the sense of affinity he expresses in
"Islendingabok" is neither dynastic nor ethnic nor even
religious, like other national histories he might have used as models.
Instead, Ari describes a polity of competitive leaders whose identity
as a group is defined by their participation in the legislative and
judicial processes of the Althing, an institution that enjoys its
authority and bestows its benefits for peace by their collective
assent. Respect for the Althing was a principle honored in the breach,
of course, never threatened more dramatically than during the crisis
engendered by attempts to evangelize Iceland, when the Christian and
pagan parties renounced their community of laws. Gronlie thus
implicitly follows Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1939) and Richard Tomasson
(1980) in finding the constitution of the Icelandic Commonwealth as
described by Ari in "Islendingabok" the first attempt to create a
new nation on new principles in the "New World." In fact, the gorge at
Thingvellir where the Althing met, the "Almannagja" depicted in
an aerial photo on the cover of the book, is the cleft of the Mid-
Atlantic Ridge separating Europe and America. Iceland's attempt to
maintain this oligarchic form of representative government failed in
the century after Ari wrote when the Althing submitted to the
Norwegian crown in 1262-64 and lost its independence as a law-making
body until the twentieth century.

For a more religious perspective on the evangelization of Iceland, one
that draws upon traditions from other parts of the country than the
southwest, we must turn to a source most scholars believe was composed
in the mid-thirteenth century, when the Althing was seriously weakened
by the violence and factionalism that would soon initiate its demise.
The anonymous author of "Kristni Saga", "The Story of
Conversion," is also much more heavily influenced by European
traditions of hagiography with their stress upon pagan resistance and
persecution of missionaries. The author illustrates the violent
reaction provoked by the missions more dramatically than any other
source, yielding a total "body count" of eighteen, plus some memorably
abusive language (xxxviii). The author of "Kristni Saga" further
uses miracles to dramatize the conversion of key leaders and God's
protection of the missionaries. Many of these stories serve
simultaneously to display the potency of "Christian rites--
ecclesiastical chant, the sign of the cross and the use of incense"
(xxxvix)--over the power of pagan incantations, skaldic poetry and
sacrifice to the old gods. Episodes are sometimes constructed
symbolically, as when the pagan champion Kjartan is submerged three
times in his swimming match against King Olafr Tryggvason in Norway,
then given a cloak by the king, in a distinct foreshadowing of his
later baptism and robing at that Christian monarch's instance.
Iceland's history is thus bifurcated into chronologically balanced
before-and-after halves of about 130 years apiece, in which three
preparatory missions by Thorvaldr, Stefnir, and Thangbrandr pivot upon
the momentous Althing of 999-1000, followed by the consecration of the
first bishop Isleifr and the establishment of sees at Skalaholt in the
south in 1082 and Holar in the north in 1106.

Even with this strong ecclesiastical bias, however, "Kristni
Saga" differs from other medieval missionary narratives by
including many pagan poems from the conversion era. These verses are
full of poetic circumlocutions or "kennings" based upon myths of
the old gods; they depict popular pagan divinities like Thor smashing
the ships of hapless preachers, whose own God is nowhere to be found:

Before the bell's keeper [= the priest Thangbrandr] (bonds [=
gods]
destroyed the beach's falcon [= his ship])
the slayer of giantess-son [= Thor]
broke the ox of seagull's place [= ship].
Christ was not watching, when
the wave-raven [= ship] drank at the prows [= sank].
Small guard I think God held
&#8212;if any&#8212;over Gylfi's reindeer [= ship]. (44)

Gronlie comments: "These verses are forceful enough to need watering
down within the Christian prose: when describing the shipwrecks, the
author feels compelled to add that Stefnir's ship was 'not much
damaged' and that Thangbrandr's was later 'repaired'. The voice given
to paganism here, perhaps even its own voice, is unique to Old
Icelandic literature" (xli). One reason for the inclusion of this
pagan perspective may be that many thirteenth-century Icelandic
readers of "Kristni Saga" would have been able to trace their own
family histories back to leading figures of various persuasions during
the crisis of conversion, so that the author is careful to depict in
his otherwise polarized narrative many unbelievers of good sense and
good will: "Then the heathens thronged together fully armed and it
came very close to them fighting, and yet there were some who wished
to prevent trouble, even though they were not Christians" (48). The
author also seems to harbor a sneaking regard for some of the more
hostile figures, like the pagan poetess Steinunn, at least for her
talent and colorful personality. There is also a touch of dry humor: a
few pagans accept baptism cheerfully enough once it becomes clear they
can be immersed in nearby hot springs rather than cold water (50).

And the violence depicted in the saga, while serious and sectarian, is
still not so very impressive by continental standards. We find no
martyrdoms, no relapses, no backlash apostasies, but rather faults on
both sides. The vengefulness and rapine of some Christian missionaries
like Thorvaldr and Thangbrandr are explicitly disapproved by other
figures. These men kill in response to highly implausible libels--such
as that Thorvaldr fathered nine children on Fridrekr, an insult
charitably shrugged off by that foreign priest himself. The
missionaries are outlawed from Iceland "not because of their faith,"
but for homicide (xliii). Hjalti Skeggjason receives the lesser three-
year outlawry for "blasphemy," a category of crime the pagans learned
from the Christians and managed to prosecute only with great
difficulty. Hjalti had uttered a satirical quip at no less solemn a
place than the Law-Rock, where legal judgments were pronounced and
changes of law proclaimed: "I don't wish to bark at [= criticize] the
gods; / It seems to me Freyja's a bitch" (44). The author thus views
the conversion very much as did Ari before him, more as a secular
conflict than a confrontation between the forces of good and evil.
When Olafr Tryggvason is angry at the treatment of his agent
Thangbrandr, the king's Christian Icelandic friends Gizurr the White
and Hjalti himself point out that the Saxon bishop's killing of their
fellow-countrymen was something that self-respecting Icelanders could
hardly be expected to put up with from a foreigner (46). They offer to
go and try themselves. Indeed, a certain amount of national pride and
"anxiety about Norwegian intervention" in the affairs of his country
may be the reason the author of "Kristni Saga" seeks to separate
the evangelization of Iceland as much as possible from the political
interests of the king of Norway. The king's mission is shown as
counter-productive. In fact, the author begins his account with a list
of "godar," "priest-chieftains," from the pre-Christian era and
stresses that the first initiatives to preach the gospel in Iceland
came from native Icelanders rather than foreign kings or prelates. The
author finishes his account with the deaths of the Icelandic
missionaries Thorvaldr and Stefnir, completely ignoring the fate of
the Saxon Thangbrandr, and concludes with the triumphant progress of
the early church in his country without any reference to outside
interests at all, except that Icelandic bishops encouraged by popular
acclaim go abroad to receive their "pallia": "The conversion
effort is firmly attributed to Icelandic chieftains: they are among
the first to be converted and the first church-builders, they provide
the first two bishops of Iceland and "most men of high rank," the
author tells us, "were educated and ordained priests even though they
were chieftains" [53]...["Kristni Saga"] is a fitting tribute to
the success of those chieftains who negotiated the political threat
from Norway and brought Iceland into the Christian world" (xliv-v).

In addition to a full and informative introduction, summarized here,
Gronlie offers a close, clear translation into Modern English,
surprisingly detailed and useful notes to the translated text which
coordinate persons and events with references to them in other
sources, a full up-to-date bibliography of modern scholarship in both
English and Icelandic, a chronology, map, and index of persons and
place-names. At least for scholars whose access to and fluency in
reading Modern Icelandic scholarship is limited, this slim volume
offers an invaluable starting point for all further study of these
texts and the period of medieval North Atlantic history they treat.
-- 
-- Jenne Heise / Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
jenne at fiedlerfamily.net


Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:05:25 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sagas and Gragas-OT

I suspect this is the source being referenced for the Gray Goose Laws.

Dennis, Andrew, Foote, Peter, and Perkins, Richard, Laws of Early Iceland: 
Gragas, the Codex Regius of Gragas with material from other manuscripts, 2 
volumes; University of Manitoba Press, 1980-2000.

The laws were oral from 930 to 1117, when they were codified.  The written 
law appeared in 1118 and were used until  supplanted in 1271 by the Norse 
laws.  The laws and the information contained in them would probably have 
been applicable only to Iceland and one would need to seek out other sources 
to determine commonalities between the Scandinavian cultures.

Bear

<the end>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	Iceland-msg	Page 18 of 18